Furuta Mountain Nature Reserve Forest Vegetation Research

Based on the investigation of the forest vegetation in Natural Reserves of Gutian Mount, Physiognomy of the forest vegetation , the characteristics of structure and the species composition were studied, and forest vegetation was classified. It also included the size structure and diversity of dominant population: Castanopsis eyrei, Schima superba, Cyclobalanopsis glauca and Pinus taiwanensis.The species diversity of forest communities was also studied in this paper. The main result shows:The life forms of forest vegetation according to Raunkiaer classification were: Phanerophyta > Hemicryptophyta > Geophyta > Therophyta > Chamaephyta. The order was microphanerophytes> mesophanerophytes > megaphanerophytes > lianoidphanerophytes > nanophanerophytes in Phanerophyta, and evergreen species > deciduous species. The leaf characteristics showed that plant with microphylls and mesophylls, simple, unentire, herbaceous and leathery leaves played an important role. The vegetation stratification were divided into: tree layer, undergrowth layer, herbaceous layer and lianas, the tree layer could be divided into two sub-layer.The forest vegetation in Natural Reserves was classified according to the Chinese Vegetation Classification System as well as the other methods: evergreen broad-leaved forest, evergreen-deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest, coniferous-broad mixed forest and coniferous forest, which included 17 forest communities.The size structure of Castanopsis eyrei had two types: growing and stationary. In communities that included Castanopsis eyrei , the species diversity of the tree layer increased first and then decreased with succession.The size structure of Schima superb a had four types: growing, stationary, mature and senescence. The size structure is different in different communities that included Schima superba. In those communities, the species diversity of the tree layer increased first and then decreased during succession.The size structure of Cyclobalanopsis glauca included growing, stationary and senescence. With the succession, the species diversity of the tree layer increased gradually.The size structure of Pinus taiwanensis had only senescence in these communities that we studied.The species diversity of coniferous-broad mixed forest was bigger than Pinus taiwanensis forest's.The species diversity of different communities was different, it was also different in different layers: In the evergreen broad-leaved forest, the order of the species diversity was shrub layer > tree layer > herb layer; tree layer > shrub layer > herb layer in the evergreen-deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest; shrub layer> tree layer> herb layer in the coniferous-broad mixed forest.The Gleason species richness of the evergreen broad-leaved forest in different region were compared respectively, the order was Wuyanling > Dinghushan > Jinyunshan > Gutianshan > Huangshan > Dabieshan, which indicated that the species diversity increase along with the decrease of latitude.The species diversity of forest community was influenced by altitude as well as slope.The species diversity changed with the succession: tree layer's species diversity showed the order: heliophyte evergreen broad-leaved forest > mesophyte evergreen broad-leaved forest > coniferous-broad mixed forest > coniferous forest; The species diversity of shrub layer showed the order: coniferous-broad mixed forest > coniferous forest > mesophyte evergreen broad-leaved forest > heliophyte evergreen broad-leaved forest;The species diversity of herb layer showed the order: coniferous forest > mesophyte evergreen broad-leaved forest > coniferous-broad mixed forest > heliophyte evergreen broad-leaved forest.